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Zadie Smith on Giuseppe Pontiggia's Umberto Buti – books podcast

Zadie Smith shares why she loves this almost ‘anti-Italian’ story from Giuseppe Pontiggia, then reads the story, as part of our seasonal series of short stories selected by leading novelists

‘I was assigned the story by the American literary magazine McSweeney’s to translate from Italian. I’d never read Pontiggia before. As I translated it I really admired its economy and humour, and its somewhat anti-Italian spirit. There’s nothing beautiful in it, and no reverie. It’s all hard edges, like a piece by Moravia – but funnier. I think it’s interesting to see a writer working against the grain of his culture.’

Other episodes to curl up with this holiday period: Penelope Lively on MR James; Neil Gaiman on Rudyard Kipling; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reading Ama Ata Aidoo and Sebastian Barry returning to James Joyce’s short story Eveline, forty years after he first read it.

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from Culture | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2SsxXJJ

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